I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Attorneys for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico have threatened to sue the Public Regulation Commission (PRC) if the Insurance Division vacates its controversial approval last month of a 21.3 percent health insurance rate increase.
But Blue Cross Blue Shield attorneys Paul Bardacke and Kerry Kiernan argued in a letter to the Insurance Division Wednesday that the Commission has no authority to review or vacate the Insurance Division’s approval of the rate hike. The company wants the PRC to “play by the rules,” the Albuquerque Journal reported in a Thursday story about the letter.
PRC commissioners ordered the state Insurance Division May 13 to rescind its approval and reexamine the rate hike.
Rate hikes had been approved for the company every year since 2004, representing a cumulative 150 percent increase in monthly premiums for many policyholders, The Independent found.
The Insurance Division had approved a weekend rate hike settlement prior to a public hearing that had been ordered by PRC commissioners, prompting Commissioner Jason Marks to describe the settlement as a “back room deal.”
Former state Insurance Superintendent Morris “Mo” Chavez resigned in the ensuing public furor.
Interim superintendent Tom Rushton subsequently announced his resignation last week, after commissioners ordered him to rescind the settlement approval.
Insurance Division lead attorney Brent Moore, has announced his resignation, effective May 31, as well.
The resignations provide the PRC with a “clean slate,” PRC Chairman David King said. King and other PRC commissioners have told The Independent they hope to improve oversight of the Insurance Division’s rate hike approval process.
